Tuesday, January 5, 2010

All Puffed Up

I have two puffers, a navy sleek one for winter elegance (a cashmere sweater fits underneath it) and a light gold one for everyday wear. It’s the same color as this Moncler puffer, but infinitely more practical in cut. I wear it with a beige beret and my palomino Tecnicas.

Light gold for every day, however, is not necessarily practical, and, taking stock last yesterday, I realized that it was time for my puffer to take a dip.

Last night, as I put it into my washing machine, I glanced at the cleaning instructions on the tag.

Dry clean only, they said.

Silly, thought I, as I turned on the water. I’ve washed my daughters’ puffers, as well as duvets in my machine, and they turn out perfectly.

My jacket looked fine, too, until it came out of the dryer in puffy clumps. Alas, the down had redistributed itself in unpleasant ways.

But with advice from Town and Country Mom, and The Clueless Crafter, sage and gentle readers, I opened a can of tennis balls (yes, I am so lucky that my children play tennis) and popped them into the dryer avec puffer and turned the setting on low for about 30 minutes.

I have a down vest which I wash in cold and dry on low with tennis balls as well....remove from the dryer immediately shake and hang...should be good as new. Like cashmere, down does not like the harsh dry cleaning fluids.Hi from BC!

About Me

I'm a native of Prince Edward Island, Canada, currently a literature professor and freelance journalist in the United States.
I once interviewed with Vogue, where I was told that I was "too intellectual" to work on the magazine. I've run with that.

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